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KISMAYO, Somalia — On the 4-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past.

“Watch out,” the man, who gave only his first name, Adan, told a reporter. “There might be bombs on the road ahead.”

When told of the exchange minutes later, a Kenyan soldier growled. “These people work with al-Shabab,” said the officer. “They know where bombs have been planted, but they won’t tell us. Don’t trust them.”

In Kenya, the news that its army captured Kismayo, the stronghold of the al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group al-Shabab, had been trumpeted as a resounding victory.

But, on the ground, the truth is muddier. It’s clear that al-Shabab had been weakened but also that it is far from vanquished and that it is regrouping for a long-term guerrilla insurgency.

Kenya has boasted of its conquest but blocks foreign reporters from the city.

A visit to Kismayo this week reveals perhaps part of the reason why: Kenyan soldiers rarely venture into the city’s center and remain holed up instead in bases at the seaport and at airstrips north and south of the city. With al-Shabab fighters able to melt into and out of civilian life with relative ease, Kenyan soldiers struggle to identify friend from foe.

In Kismayo, people are slowly returning to their homes, and businesses are reopening. In place of al-Shabab, Kenya’s Somali allies, the Ras Kamboni militia under warlord Ahmed Madobe, now rule the city under a form of martial law.